


until the last star burns out.

by orphan_account



Series: can’t live without you [3]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Theyre both hot and deserve to be in a fic together, Uh ?, fools in love ??, kunil are my ults, listen i wrote this instead of sleeping, mob boss!taeil, no beta we die like men, normie!kun, text conversations ?!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 08:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18617323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: [04:00AM] can i see you again when i get home?





	until the last star burns out.

_**[03:40AM]** saw a scarecrow wearing stripes today. thought of you for some reason._

 

_**[03:45AM]**  you’re probably asleep now. i totally forgot about time zones._

 

_**[04:00AM]** can i see you again when i get home?_

 

There’s not much to say about Taeil, at least not according to Kun.

 

He sees him maybe once every three days, either in the bar or in his apartment, and then he disappears off for _business_ issues that Kun knows better than to ask about. He texts Kun occasionally, asking if he wants to go out or if he’d rather stay in, if he had a good day, if he remembered to eat while studying and the occasional sext here and there. Kun knows that he likes the color red and likes all of Kun’s lame microbiology jokes and likes it when Kun calls him. He knows that he has a little brother called Donghyuck who is a freshman at Kun’s uni and that he likes bubble tea and that his favorite song is whatever is the radio at the time.

 

He also knows that Taeil works for one of the biggest mobs in Asia, but that’s beside the point.

 

He’s not _dating_ Taeil. _Dating_ is Mark and Yukhei and their inability to keep their hands off each other and the disgusting way they get lost in each other’s eyes and say _I love you_ to the other person even if they’re leaving for half a minute. _Dating_ is the way Mark subconsciously huddles closer to Yukhei in public and kisses him when he thinks people are too distracted to notice.

 

Sometimes, Taeil pulls him closer by the strings of his hoodie and kisses him until he feels the world tilt under his feet. Sometimes he links their fingers when they’re leaving the bar together and squeezes, saying something like, _fuck, your hands are cold_ , and doesn’t let go. Sometimes, he lets Kun fall asleep with his head rested on his heart. Sometimes, it feels like he has something more to say when he’s telling Kun that he’s going to be away for a while.

 

That’s not dating, though. He doesn’t know what it is but it’s certainly not that.

 

“You’re pretty,” Taeil told him one day, palm splayed against his cheek, cold and bruising all at once. The words came out as a whisper, like he wasn’t sure if he should be saying it. He was watching Kun like he was the one who measured the distance between the stars in the night sky and put them in the perfect order, as if he was the reason they sparkled in different ways, as if he was the last star in the sky at daybreak.

 

It had left Kun feeling like his heart had grown ten times more in his chest, eating up all the space there.

 

 _You’re pretty. You’re pretty. You’re pretty_.

 

And maybe that’s why he never ends up asking Taeil what this is. The feeling of having Taeil like this, even if it’s without any labels and expectations and obligations, is a lot better than having nothing at all. What they have is peaceful, quiet and warm, and sometimes Kun thinks he’s too much of a coward to ruin that by asking for more.

 

He looks at his phone screen and thinks of Taeil, tousled brown hair and warm eyes and cold hands. He thinks of the way he smiles at Kun like he’s the only person in the room. Thinks of how his eyes had sparkled like lanterns in the night sky when he’d said, you’re pretty. He sighs and types in,

 

_**[08:00AM]**  i thought of you today too. no reason, just did._

_**[08:01AM]** yeah, you can come see me whenever_.

 

It’s been four days since he last saw Taeil. There’s a purple sweater that doesn’t belong to him tossed on the armchair, glasses that aren’t his on the study table, a book that isn’t his in his shelf, an extra pair of slippers at the doorway. There’s the black and red suit jacket on the floor that Kun has yet to return back to Taeil, the messy note that Taeil had stuck on Kun’s forehead as he left. (Going out. Won’t come back for a while. Text me when you’re up?) There’s the textbook on the desk that Taeil had tugged out of his hands and told him to rest.

 

It’s funny. The whole apartment used to be just all of exchange student Qian Kun’s hobbies stashed into one place, it was just his home away from home, somewhere he had sworn to never let anyone in, and now the whole place has something that reminds him of Taeil.

 

He thinks he shouldn’t do it, but picks up his phone anyway.

 

_**[08:15AM]** hey, taeil?_

_  
**[08:15AM]** what are we?_

**Author's Note:**

> yes taeil absolutely responds to that last text with “we’re humans” bc he’s weak like that


End file.
